Every grower wishes it were easier to come up with a chemical program that was simple, affordable and effective. Alas, it usually takes a lot of work for those three traits to coincide. Fortunately, chemical companies and researchers spend considerable amounts of both time and money working to develop plans for applications that will bring the most profit and least grief to growers.
New for the 2015 growing season, DuPont’s V2 Advantage is one such program, one aimed specifically at potato production. Aimed at protecting potato crops from verticillium infection, V2 Advantage is a full-season management program that combines two DuPont products from which the program derives its name: Vydate CL-V insecticide/nematicide and Vertisan fungicide (which in 2015 is commercially available for the first time).
The key benefits of the V2 Advantage program, according to DuPont, include:
- Improved consistency in yield and quality as a result of better disease and pest control.
- The ability to maintain better control of a crop. The program suppresses the early-die complex by fighting Rhizoctonia canker and black scurf, early blight, brown spot, white mold and nematodes.
- Stronger, more vigorous plants by virtue of the previously detailed benefits.
“Verticilllium attacks the potato grower in all growing regions and can be devastating to a potato crop,” says DuPont technical sales agronomist Greg Simonson. “The verticillium enters the path through multiple pathways, and some of the pathways it enters through are through soil-borne diseases like black dot and rhizoctonia. Vertisan protects against those. Other pathways it enters through are nematodes and Vydate protects against that. When you take the dual approach of guarding against the diseases and the insect nematodes, the two products come together to provide full-season protection against verticillium and the early-die complex.”
The program plays out over six to eight applications throughout the growing season. The first is an in-furrow application of both Vydate and Vertisan. The second comes about 45 days after planting, applying only Vydate. At row closure, both chemicals are applied through chemigation; and three to five applications of Vydate are made during the bulking period.
DuPont spent four years doing small-plot and commercial circle-split research working out the kinks and perfecting the program. The last two years, however, became more focused, as the company worked extensively at four research sites in the Pacific Northwest—with Phil Hahn in Hermiston, Ore.; Dennis Johnson in Othello, Wash.; Mike Thornton in Parma, Idaho; and Jeff Miller in Rupert, Idaho—four a total of eight trials over 2013 and 2014.
“Of the eight trials, we’ve had very positive results,” says Simonson. “With typical amounts of verticillium in the soil, there was substantial benefit from the V2 Advantage program.
“Commercial results have been very strong as well,” Simonson continues. “We’ve been very pleased with what we’ve seen with the V2 Advantage program. We’re excited going forward with it.”
Simonson says that all the feedback he and DuPont have received about the V2 Advantage program has been positive, particular from growers with whom he’s worked during the trial period. “It’s been very well accepted, especially by those growers who have had a chance to look at it on their farms are more exposed and are very excited and comfortable about using it,” he says. “Other growers who haven’t had a chance to look at it are obviously going to start smaller and wait until they get to see it more for themselves before they jump in all the way. But grower perception has been very strong.”
With 2015 being the first year V2 Advantage is commercially available, Simonson says DuPont wants to stress to growers just how advantageous the program can be to them. “Healthier crops and more productive soils are the two things we’re trying to maximize for growers,” he says.